Apparatus for processing small parts utilizing a robot and an array of tools mounted on the outer robot arm

ABSTRACT

The present invention is a method and apparatus for processing a plurality of small work-pieces which each weighs under five pounds using a robot gripping a rotatable pallet for holding an array of small parts. The robot has a removable tooling plate mounted on its head for mounting an array of processing tools operating on the rotatable pallet such as pick-and-place tools, work-piece ejection tools, vertical and horizontal video cameras, reflective photocell sensors, and laser distance ranging sensors. The tools operate under control of the robot and in conjunction with rotation and elevation of the rotatable pallet with respect to the tool array. The tools are mounted by an interchangeable, standard bracket to permit quick installation or removal of the tool mounting plate and addition or placement of individual devices and sensors appropriate to particular robotic tasks.

This patent application is a Continuation of patent application Ser. No.08/237,301 filed on May 3, 1994, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,599.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of The Invention

The present invention relates to the field of utilizing a robot toprocess and assemble small work-pieces having small parts or componentswhile in a pallet held by the robot end effector. More particularly, thepresent invention relates to how processing tools may be advantageouslyfixed to the last arm of the robot while the end effector can rotatewith respect to the robot arm. Most particularly, the present inventionis highly advantageous when arrays of parts are held on the end effectorin rotatable pallets which are rotated and moved vertically with respectto the sensors and devices fixed to the robot arm.

The present invention permits the robot to accomplish tasks by passingthe work-pieces in front of the sensors and devices that are commonlyneeded for robotic processing tasks as soon as the pallet is picked up,during transit to a work-station, as part of the actions of thework-station, and prior to setting the pallet back down upon completionof the tasks.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Since the term part can be highly confusing in the following text, theterm "work-piece" is defined as a part that is being worked on by therobot, or a component of such a work-piece or a smaller pallet thatretains a work-piece. In the art of automatic assembly and processingequipment, a nest is something that retains a work-piece. The nest canbe a simple hole, a machined, fitted block of material, or a morecomplex device including devices which wedge or hold the work-piece.Grippers are devices which actively hold the work-piece and typicallypermit the work-piece to fall when the grip is released. Selectivecompliance articulated robot arm (SCARA) robots are a class ofindustrial assembly robots that may hold a work-piece rigidly in the Zaxis (vertical) while permitting the robot arm to move easily in thehorizontal X and Y directions.

Commonly in automatic assembly and processing machines, as soon as awork-piece is placed on an assembly, the gripper moving the work-piececonfirms that a work-piece was gripped by means of a sensor in thegripper, or at the next operating station at which a photocell verifiesthe presence or condition of the assembly. Such sensing is necessary toenable the machine to stop when incomplete or defective assemblies arebeing made at high speed. In prior art robotic processing modes, therobot is primarily used as a programmable pick-and-place between asupply of components and an assembly or to use the robot to move asingle or multiple-headed tool about a work-piece. These robots havegripper sensors to verify successful gripping and placement of parts.

A very common SCARA robot used for industrial small parts assembly isdisclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,668 issued to Carlisle et al. on Oct.27, 1982 (hereafter "the Carlisle Patent"), which is availablecommercially as the Adept One robot.

It is common in the art to have a CCD camera mounted on the end of thelast arm of the robot and by having the robot arm move the camera to anadvantageous position to precisely locate a work-piece not then held bythe robot in preparation for pick up by the robot, or to verify thecorrect positioning of a work-piece previously placed by the robot.

The following prior art references are relevant to the field of thepresent invention.

1. U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,078 issued to Kimura on May 3, 1988 for"Multi-Function Industrial Robot" (hereafter "the Kimura Patent").

2. U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,309 issued to Zimmer on Mar. 20, 1984 for "ToolHolder For Manipulator Arm" (hereafter "the Zimmer Patent").

3. U.S. Pat. No. 4,740,133 issued to Kawano on Apr. 26, 1988 for"Composite Working Device Using A Robot And Method Of AccomplishingComposite Work Using A Robot" (hereafter "the Kawano Patent").

4. U.S. Pat. No. 4,880,265 issued to Drexel et al. on Nov. 14, 1989 for"Robot Arm With An Assembly Flange For Tools" (hereafter "the DrexelPatent").

5. U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,148 issued to Bonomi et al. on Feb. 26, 1991 for"Robotically Controlled Multi-Task End Effector" (hereafter "the BonomiPatent").

The Kimura Patent discloses a tool carrier which rotates 45° off thevertical axis so that only the tool directly below the robot head is inuse. The Kimura Patent permits a robot to utilize several differentsmall tools, but only one small tool at a time and not while it alsocarries the work-pieces on which it is operating. The robot is of aspecial, dedicated design atypical of SCARA robots. The tool carrier isnot removable as an assembly, but individual tools are removable.

The Zimmer Patent discloses a tool holder. The tool holder is a workingtip of the end effector, which in this case is a spot welding tip. Thespot welding tip is mounted on the end effector and is driven by a bevelgear to rotate about a horizontal axis. Rotating a central meshing bevelgear causes the welding tip to rotate in the transverse (horizontal)axis so that the tip can be pointed at any angle with respect to the endeffector. The novel part is the arrangement for commutation ofelectrical power and cooling fluids through the tips which isaccomplished by contactor shoes bearing on a cylindrical surface fixedto the robot end effector. As the end effector is rotated 360° about avertical axis, the commutator also rotates. Flexible electrical cablesconnect the tool holder to the commutator ring to permit the rotationabout the transverse axis.

The Kawano Patent discloses a large 6-axis welding robot weldingautomobile doors. It includes a spot welding head and a first jointmember in the form of a hook that is used to move a fixture holding thesemi-complete door in a tooling frame to different stations. The hook issimply a parallel tool on the end effector. The hook is used to move thework, but not when the robot is welding on it.

The Drexel Patent discloses a flange mounted between the robot endeffector and a primary tool in line with the robot wrist. Additionaltools can be mounted to the end effector on each of the four sides. Therobot would use one and then use the other. The robot moves the tool,not the work.

The Bonomi Patent discloses two 6-axis robots which cooperate togetherto drive rivets in aircraft panels without releasing their pressure onthe panels. The robot end effector on the left provides the backup tothe rivet insertion operations. The robot end effector on the right hasa central quill that can be driven and rotated. The tools are carried inthe linear apparatus which is moved across in front of the quill asnecessary to complete all of the drilling and riveting operations.

In all prior art cases, the robot was being used more efficiently in theprior art modes of either picking up and placing a part or in using atool then acting directly under the wrist axis of the robot to performwork on work-pieces not supported by the robotic head.

A co-pending patent application, Ser. No. 08/189,118 filed on Jan. 26,1994 by the same inventor (hereafter "the '118 Application"), disclosesa method and apparatus for processing and assembly of small work-piecesutilizing a robot wherein the work-pieces are held in nests which areprimarily in circular arrays on a rotatable pallet that the robot grips,rotates, elevates and lowers while it moves the pallet through aplurality of processing stations. The '118 Application created asituation wherein the present invention could be used for furtherimproving the speed of robots assembling small parts while reducing thecost and complexity of the robotic processing cell. The work-piecearrays of the '118 Application can also be linear arrays of work-piecesarranged on straight sides of the rotatable pallet. The work-pieces onthe rotatable pallets can be pallets containing linear arrays, or leadframes containing linear arrays.

As used in Japan, the term robot includes a wide variety of devices suchas simple pneumatic pick-and-place with mechanical end stops. It mayalso be applied to dedicated machines having an operating head with avertical stroke and separately able to move work-pieces in the X and Ydirections relative to the head by means such as linear andcrossed-axis, motor driven slides.

The disadvantages with the prior art devices are that the tools on therobot head move with the end effector and no tools are provided forworking on the work-pieces while they are being held and moved by theend effector. The '118 Application rotatable pallet carries small partsaway from the centerline mechanisms of the robot head now enablinguseful work to be performed by tools on the robot head at work-stationsarrayed around the robot work-envelope and during transit between thework-stations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a method and apparatus for processing smallparts utilizing a robot and an array of tools mounted on the outer armof the robot.

It is the intent of the present invention to include robots withelectronically controlled linked or crossed movable arms, such as aSCARA, gantry and Cartesian robots, with a head movable in thehorizontal plane, a wrist joint capable of rotating the end effectorwith respect to the previous joint, and means to raise and lower the endeffector in the Z direction either by solely moving the end effectorvertically or by elevating at least one of the arms supporting the endeffector.

In the present invention, the head of the robot is understood to be thelast joint of the robot that may be stationary when only the endeffector is moving. It is the relative motion of the end effector tothat joint that is used in the present invention to accomplish usefulwork.

The X, Y, and Z directions are defined in robot coordinate directionsbeing normally coincident with world coordinates in most situations. Theup and down directions are defined relative to decreasing or increasingthe distance between the tooling plate and the end effector.

It is the primary objective of this invention to increase the speed andefficiency of the robotic processing and assembly of small parts; moreparticularly, when a robot carries a plurality of work-pieces in acircular array on a pallet.

It is another object of the present invention to provide selectedoperating tools commonly needed for processing and assembling smallparts on the head of a robot carrying a rotatable pallet of small partsso that the tools can be used as soon as the robot has gripped thepallet. Therefore, the tools can be utilized repeatedly during theprocessing without the robot having to return to a previous workstation.

It is another object of the present invention to increase the time,cost, space efficiency and to permit the robotic cell to accomplish evenmore tasks requiring only changes to the robot program.

It is another object of the present invention to utilize primarily SCARArobots with X, Y, and Z motions of the end effector and rotary wristmotions, such as the Adept One robot.

It is another object of the present invention to utilize cylindricalcoordinate robots such as the Seiko RT 3200 robot and Cartesian axisrobots such as the Seiko XM 5106 robot.

It is another object of the present invention to utilize a tooling platein a high volume application using a pallet conveyor and a simplerrobotic device.

The tools are positioned approximately on the centerline of thework-piece nests which are in the rotatable pallet so that the robot endeffector rotating the pallet can present any work-piece in the array toa particular sensor or tool. In those prior art robots where the endeffector also moves vertically with respect to such tools fixed to thelast arm, more advantageous operations can be performed such as usingreflective photocells to sense the presence and position of work-piecesin the rotatable pallets, picking and placing of parts onto and off ofthe rotatable pallet, or having laser distance ranging sensors on thearm to precisely determine the height of the assemblies.

Therefore, rather than having the robot move the work-pieces betweenoperating stations, the tools on the tooling plate can operate on thework-pieces on the rotatable pallets so that the head of the robotbecomes a small machine in itself.

The work-pieces can be individual assemblies handled in circular arrays,or the work-pieces can be in linear arrays and carried on a sub-palletor connected together by skeletons or lead frames in linear arrays suchas in the processing of integrated circuits.

As previously described, automatic machinery must usually verify that awork-piece placement or processing operation was successful before thenext assembly operation can began. When the robot first picks up therotatable array of work-pieces, it may need to determine which pallet ithas gripped and whether all the work-pieces are correctly in the pallet.By bringing the pallet up to the tooling head and rotating it withrespect to the tools on the tooling plate, a bar code read head pointeddown at the top of the tooling plate can read the pallet identity andthe product bar codes while simultaneously a reflective photocell cancheck for presence of work-pieces in all of the nests on the pallet. Arobot may be able to rotate such a circular pallet with 24 work-piecesto a full 360° in less than two seconds while also reading the palletbar codes. The reflective photocell requires five (5) milliseconds toconfirm that a single work-piece is presented on the pallet. Therefore,by the time the robot has moved from picking up the pallet and moved tothe first robotic work-station, the necessary preliminary data hasalready been obtained.

The '118 Application has disclosed a rotatable pallet robotic work cellwith a large number of work-stations distributed around the workingenvelope of the robot. By providing the most common tooling functionsmounted on the head of the robot, costs of repeating sensing functionsare eliminated and the work envelope is available for more specializedfunctions. Also, the tools on the tooling plate are available for workeven while still performing work at the work station and without therobot arm having to frequently return to a check station or similarfunction.

The primary cost of a machine vision system is the central processor andthe associated software. The cost of additional cameras, lenses,brackets, and lighting is relatively inexpensive. Several machine visionvideo cameras can be mounted on the tooling plate and can perform alarge number of check functions for a large variety of work-pieces. Withthe video camera pointed downwardly and the robot end effector beingable to move vertically with respect to the tooling plate, the focalpoint on the work-piece can be adjusted advantageously according to theprocessing then needed.

By having the robot head carry such an array of tools directly over thework-piece array, the common processing tools are immediately availableto begin work rather than requiring the robot head to move to anotherlocation where such a tool is positioned.

By having the robot rotate and move the pallet relative to a simplevertical air cylinder, one of the most common functions in automation,to pick-and-place a work-piece can be dramatically reduced in cost,complexity, and size while using the same device to load and unload avariety of parts from the pallet. This very common capability is uniqueto the present invention because of its simplicity.

The tools are mounted on brackets and secured to a tooling plate fixedto the head of the robot. The tooling plate is easily added or removed,and individual tools added or removed on the robot head to enable rapidchanging of tool arrays depending on the work-pieces being processed.

The tooling plate has a circular array of perhaps twenty-four (24)positions for fixing tooling brackets in a common way so that aparticular tool can be mounted at any of the twenty-four (24) positions.The tooling plate has, for example, four (4) tooling positions reservedfor other functions, for a net of twenty (20) possible tool mountingpositions. An array of standardized tools and bracketry will beavailable to minimize costs.

Prior art robots have not used such tool arrays because the work-pieceswere directly under the robot head and the end effector. The robot didnot attempt to work on the work-pieces during transit, other than toperform simple tasks like centering a work-piece within a multi-jawedgripper,. By using a pallet to support an array of work-pieces andmoving these work-pieces radially outward, the present invention enablesthe tooling plate and set of tools of the present invention to be usedin conjunction with each other.

The present invention method and apparatus for processing small partsutilizing a robot and an array of tools mounted on the outer robot armdecreases the cost and increases the speed of certain robotic cells forprocessing small work-pieces.

Further novel features and other objects of the present invention willbecome apparent from the following detailed description, discussion andthe appended claims, taken in conjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Referring particularly to the drawings for the purpose of illustrationonly and not limitation, there is illustrated:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a robot which utilizes the presentinvention method and apparatus for retaining a plurality of processingtools.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a tooling plate according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of the robot arm and the toolingplate shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of the tooling plate shown inFIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the preferred embodiment of the presentinvention showing a circular shaped tooling plate.

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of an alternative embodiment of the presentinvention showing a square shaped tooling plate.

FIG. 7 is a top plan view of an alternative embodiment of the presentinvention showing a rectangular shaped tooling plate.

FIG. 8 is a top plan view of a further alternative embodiment of thepresent invention showing a hexagon shaped tooling plate.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the preferred embodiment of the presentinvention showing a clamping tube assembly for attaching the toolingplate to the robotic arm.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of thepresent invention showing a mounting means for attaching the toolingplate to the underside of an overhead robotic arm.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a bracket of which two or more would beutilized instead of the vertical tube shown in FIG. 10, for attachingthe tooling plate to an adjacent robotic arm.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view of the tooling plate attached to the armof the robot. A gripper is mounted to a user flange for rotating asingle work-piece under the tooling plate. For clarity in the figure,the processing tools on the tooling plate have been omitted.

FIG. 13 is a perspective view of a rotatable pallet which is mountedabove the head of the robot and with the tooling plate mounted below therotatable pallet. For clarity in the figure, the processing tools on thetooling plate have been omitted.

FIG. 14 is a partial cross-sectional view of the nest actuator assemblymechanism which is mounted to the tooling plate.

FIG. 15 is a partial cross-sectional view of a mechanism associated witha nest which is aligned with the actuator in FIG. 14 and operated bymotion of the actuator above it.

FIG. 16 is a partial cross-sectional view of an electrical contactassociated with a nest which is aligned with the actuator in FIG. 14 andoperated by electrical contact of the actuator above it.

FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional view of a pneumatic connection associatedwith a nest which is aligned with the actuator in FIG. 14 and operatedby contact and action of the actuator above it.

FIG. 18 is a partial cross-sectional view of a female connector which ismounted through the tooling plate and permitted to move laterally inmating with a male connector on the rotatable pallet, for applying air,liquid, and fiber optic connections to selected nests.

FIG. 19 is a partial cross-sectional view of a fixed male connectorwhich is mounted through the rotating pallet at a nest and mates withthe female connector in FIG. 18.

FIG. 20 is a partial cross-sectional view of a video camera which ismounted to the tooling plate and vertically viewing a nest on therotatable pallet.

FIG. 21 is a perspective view of a work-station and a pallet conveyorpositioned above an indexing head, the pallet conveyor conveying therotatable pallets under the indexing head.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Although specific embodiments of the present invention will now bedescribed with reference to the drawings, it should be understood thatsuch embodiments are by way of example only and merely illustrative ofbut a small number of the many possible specific embodiments which canrepresent applications of the principles of the present invention.Various changes and modifications obvious to one skilled in the art towhich the present invention pertains are deemed to be within the spirit,scope and contemplation of the present invention as further defined inthe appended claims.

The detailed embodiment of the present invention will be presented firstfollowed by other embodiments within the scope of the present inventionwhich will then be described.

The preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated with anAdept One robot of the current design according to the Carlisle Patent.After nearly ten years of sales, it has become one of the most commonlyused robots in manufacturing in the United States. The '118 Applicationhas disclosed how using the robot to carry a circular array ofwork-pieces can increase the robot efficiency while permitting access tomany operating work-stations located at the periphery of the robot workenvelope. The objective of the '118 Application and the presentinvention is to more fully utilize the unique qualities of existingassembly robots to perform far more assembly and processing tasks onhighly variable small work-pieces in less time.

If all processing and check functions only existed at work-stations atthe periphery of the work envelope, then the robot would have torepeatedly move back to such a station during the course of thework-piece processing, or each capability would have to be repeated ateach work-station where it was needed. The present invention places somecommon functions directly on the outer arm of the robot where the robotcan operate on the work-pieces even while the pallet is still in thework-station. Other functions such as reading the pallet and productidentity bar codes are then easily added and can then be accomplishedeven while the robot is moving between work-stations.

The present invention includes using the robot to actively assist theoperation of such tooling devices, further simplifying the devices.

Generally, the work-pieces are not shown in work-piece nests since theymay actually be in a wide variety of configurations. For illustrationpurposes, it may be assumed that work-pieces are short cylinders whichare partially inserted into nests of the rotatable pallet.

Referring to FIG. 1, there is illustrated an Adept One robot 10 of theSCARA type suitable for industrial manufacturing of small work-pieces.The robot 10 consists of a base 11 which is mounted to a vertical column12. An inner link arm 13 is rotated about the top of vertical column 12.An outer link arm 14 is rotated about the outer end of inner link arm13. A robot quill mechanism 15 is not visibly shown in these figures,but is shown in detail in the Carlisle Patent, sheet 6 of the drawings.The robot quill 15 can be moved both vertically and rotationally withrespect to the end of the outer link arm 14 and carries a user flange 17(shown in the Carlisle Patent, sheet 6 of the drawings, which is at thebottom of reference number 110) for mounting end effectors. The quillmechanism 15 is covered by a quill cover 16. The robot 10 moves thequill 15 in a vertical stroke and rotationally as shown by the arrows 18and 19 respectively. The lower end of the quill mechanism 15 issupported by a quill guide 36, which projects down from below the outerlink arm 14.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 3, an end effector is mounted to the userflange for the robot 10 to perform useful work. A pallet gripper 21 isattached to the user flange and grips a rotatable pallet 20. The pallet20 contains a plurality of work-piece- nests 22 with twenty-three nestsdepicted (shown in FIG. 13). The twenty-fourth position is an enlargedopening for passing work-pieces vertically through the pallet 20. Whenthe work-piece nests 22 are rotated into position in a work-stationoperating head at the outer periphery of the robot work envelope, theyare directly under video camera 28 which is fixed to the quill cover 16by a bracket 29. Such a machine vision camera mounting is common in theart for locating work-pieces prior to pickup or after depositing them,but is unique to the present invention for inspection of work-piecesthen held and moved by the robot end effector.

For clarity in these figures, cabling, tubing, fiber optic cabling, andwiring are not illustrated, but are conventional in the art and would beeasily accomplished by persons skilled in the art. To minimize suchitems, several supply manifolds are illustrated as being mounted on therobot arms. A pneumatic vacuum generator 24 is mounted to the side ofthe quill cover 16 for supplying vacuum to tools and to the endeffector. A small pneumatic solenoid valve manifold 25 is locatedadjacent to the quill cover 16. When appropriate, a fiber optic lightsource 26 is mounted on the inside of the outer arm 14 because the fiberbundles are not then required to flex during normal robot operations.The light source supplies light for the tooling on the robot arm toolingplate 23 through branching of the fiber optic bundles as required. Itmay be advantageous for the light source 26 to be programmable formaximum application flexibility. On top of the inner link arm 13 ispositioned an electronic control input/output interface 27 since suchelectrical wires are small and less susceptible to damage than the fiberoptic cables or pneumatic lines. Mounting of such equipment isdiscouraged by the robot manufacturer in contemplation of very rapidmovements on the robot arm, however, the '118 Application of a circularrotatable work-piece pallet dramatically reduces the movements requiredby the inner and outer link arms 13 and 14, and both can move muchslower than normally necessary in small parts robotic assembly cells.This is especially true on the Adept One robot because the stroke 18 androtation 19 of the quill 15 do not require movement of the inner andouter link arms 13 and 14.

Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, according to the present invention, atooling plate 23 is clamped to the quill guide 36 and on which aremounted various selected processing tools. Directly under the robotouter link arm 14, shown in FIG. 4 for clarity as only a round cylinder,is a video camera 30 mounted on a bracket 31 which is affixed to thetooling plate 23. Camera 30 is focused on the work-piece in nest 22adjacent to the camera 30. By rotating the quill 15, the robot cansuccessively present all the work-pieces or particular profile detailson each work-piece in the pallet 20 to camera 30 for, measurement. Byelevating and depressing the rotatable pallet 20 relative to camera 30,the vision system can make additional vertical measurements on thework-pieces. Camera 30 can also be fixed from a bracket directly downfrom the overhead arm.

Air cylinder actuator 92 at the inboard side of tooling plate 23operates vertically to cause actions on work-piece nests such as makingelectrical tests or applying a pneumatic pressure probe to nests or nestgrippers. The end of air cylinder actuator 92 can include a mechanicaldevice that moves a mechanical device associated with each work-piecenest 22. Therefore, while there may be twenty-four (24) work-piece nestson the rotatable pallet 20, the robot control system needs only a singlecontrol line to successively activate each nest. Further, it is then notnecessary to pass that control down through the robot quill 15 andthrough a complex quick disconnect coupling to the rotatable pallet 20.Such an air cylinder actuator 92 can be mounted as shown in FIG. 3, ormounted on a bracket directly over the work-pieces nest. Actuator 92 isdiscussed later in more detail.

Other typical functional tools illustrated in FIG. 1 will be discussedin subsequent figures. The rotatable pallet 20 may be in any verticalposition within the stroke 18 of the robot 10 during its operations andmay only be momentarily and occasionally raised when advantageous to usethe tools on the tooling plate 23 according to the present invention.The Adept One robot has a standard 7.7" stroke and an optional 12"stroke.

Referring to FIG. 2, there is depicted the apparatus of the presentinvention. The tooling plate assembly 45 consists of a circular toolingplate or disk 23 with a central hole 44. The tooling plate 23 also hasan array of precision bolt holes 54 and precision dowel pin holes 56.Bracket 52 can be secured with a shoulder bolt 53 and located by a dowelpin 55. A plurality of brackets 52, shoulder bolts 53 and dowel pins 55are used to mount an array of tools depending on the user's presentneeds. Bracket 52 is machined from standard angle stock to suit themounting needs of various tools. The tooling plate 23 is installedupward onto the robot quill guide 36 by locating it, using a dowel pinhole 49, to a complementary matching hole in the quill guide 36 and thenclamping it into position. The tooling plate 23 can be installed orremoved with tools still attached to the tooling plate 23.

The tooling plate 23 has a closely fitting annular split ring orclamping tube 46 which is welded at joint 47 and having weldedtightening blocks 50 also attached to it. By tightening a bolt 51, theclosely fitting split ring 46 is securely fastened to the robot head. Insome cases, more than one split,48 and set of tightening blocks 50 willbe advantageous.

To minimize mass on the end of the robot outer link arm 14, the materialof the tooling plate 23 is contemplated to be machined or investmentcast aluminum with appropriate lightening relief below the toolingsurface. The clamping tube 46 can extend down through the tooling plate23 and be bonded by suitable adhesive means. Alternatively, the entireplate and clamp assembly could be injection molded fiberglass reinforcedplastic.

The tooling plate 23 has an aperture 57 on the near side. The aperture57 is rotationally located where the rotatable pallet array is presentedto work-stations on the periphery of the working envelope of robot 10.The tooling plate 23 is cut away to provide a clear access to thework-pieces successively presented to the work-station by rotation ofthe pallet 20.

Referring to FIG. 3, there is illustrated a detail view of the toolingpreviously shown in FIG. 1. The robot vacuum pallet gripper 21 isattached to the user flange. This figure shows a reflective photo sensor33, such as model No. SM312FP manufactured by the Banner EngineeringCorporation of Minneapolis, Minn. mounted by a bracket 35 affixed to thetooling plate 23. The photo sensor 33 can sense work-piece presence infive (5) milliseconds and can verify the presence of work-pieces andmounted components as fast as the robot 10 can rotate the pallet 20.Since the photo sensor 33 is positioned over the path of the work-pieceduring rotation and can be vertically moved by the robot relative to thephoto sensor 33, it can be used for other useful functions. Reflectivephotocells acting through small fiberoptic bundles and sensor tips canbe readily positioned and fixed to the tooling plate 23.

Referring to FIG. 4, a laser distance ranging sensor 34, such as the LBseries manufactured by the Keyence Corporation of America, Inc. ofTorrance, Calif. is mounted in a similar bracket 35. The ranging sensor34 can be useful for checking the presence and the height of work-pieceassemblies. The laser ranging sensor 34 emits a downward beam ofinfrared light and then measures the time delay for reflected energy tobe received to determine the precise distance from the object. Asuitable laser sensor might cost approximately $1,600. Before the robot10 has picked up a rotatable pallet 20, the laser ranging sensor 34 canalso be used to roughly find the distance to the top pallet in a stackof such pallets. After the robot 10 has completed processing a rotatablepallet 20, by sighting through an aperture 73 on the pallet 20, thelaser ranging sensor 34 can measure the approximate distance to the toppallet in the receiving stack of pallets. The laser ranging sensor 34can also be used as a precision edge detector to verify correct locationof work-pieces in the nests 22.

The laser range sensor and edge detector are part of a general class ofdevices that may be useful in selected circumstances. They do not needto touch the work-pieces but can operate from a distance. Other usefulstand off sensors are infrared and visible light detectors.

A bar code cylindrical read head 32 is shown installed downwardlythrough the tooling plate 23 and focused on the top surface of thepallet 20. The read head 32 is used to read the pallet identity andproduct codes on the top of the rotatable pallet 20 as soon as the robot10 picks up the pallet 20. The robot 10 begins rotating the pallet 20 toread the bar codes and to verify that all work-pieces are in position.Since the bar codes will be inboard from the work-piece nests, the readhead 32 is installed directly through the tooling plate 23 in anappropriate position. To enable such reading, the two arms on the palletgripper 21 will be shorter than those illustrated in the figure.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 4, two tools are illustrated for pickingwork-pieces off from the pallet 20 or for putting components andwork-pieces on pallet 20. Both functions are commonly needed in even thesimplest assembly machines. These functions both demonstrate methods ofutilizing the unique capabilities of robots to perform assembly andprocessing functions. A pneumatic air cylinder 68 is mounted verticallyon a bracket 69 over a nest 72 in the pallet 20. On the end of aircylinder 68 is a work-piece gripper 71 which in this illustration is asimple vacuum cup. For clarity in the illustration, the vacuum lineconnections to the vacuum generator on the quill cover are notillustrated. The assembly will be hereafter be termed as a singlecylinder picker 68. To remove a work-piece from the pallet 20, the robot10 rotates the pallet 20 until the nest is in the position of nest 72.The robot 10 can then raise the pallet 20 so that the gripper 71 cangrip the work-piece. The gripper 71 is activated by vacuum in thisillustration and the robot 10 then lowers the pallet 20 away from thework-piece. The robot 10 then rotates the pallet 20 until the nest 73 isdirectly under the picker 68. Nest 73 is simply one of the twenty-four(24) original nest positions in which the nest aperture has beenenlarged so that completed work-pieces can be moved vertically throughthe pallet 20 at that one position. Therefore, there are twenty-three(23) work-piece nests while there are twenty-four (24) nest positions.More than one such enlarged nest 73 can be located on pallet 20. Withnest 73 under the gripper 71, the gripper 71 is released, permitting thework-piece to fall through nest 73. By repetition of this cycle, one,some, or all the work-pieces can be unloaded from the pallet 20. Thevertical action of cylinder 68 was not necessary if the robot 10 canraise the pallet 20 so that the work-piece is against the gripper 71.The vertical action of cylinder 68 is required when the robot 10 cannotmove the pallet 20 a sufficient distance vertically in direction 18 withrespect to the robot outer arm 14 without contacting other tools.

The same picking function can be employed with the variation thatextending the air cylinder 68 ensures that the robot 10 can always movethe pallet 20 far enough vertically. Alternatively, the robot 10 canmove the selected work-piece to position 72 where the air cylinder 68acting through shaft extension 70 moves the gripper 71 down onto awork-piece and back up after gripping the work-piece.

The single air cylinder picker 68 can also be usefully employed inpicking up work-pieces from trays of parts or feed tracks and placingthe work-pieces and components into nests 22 or onto work-pieces innests 22. For this action, the enlarged aperture 73 is rotated to bedirectly under the gripper 71, the cylinder 68 is extended causinggripper 71 to be extended through aperture 73 down below the lowersurface of pallet 20 and onto the top of a work-piece waiting there. Thegripper 71 is activated and the cylinder 68 is retracted, lifting thework-piece above the pallet 20. The robot 10 rotates the pallet 20 untilthe selected nest 22 is under the gripper 71. The robot 10 then raisesthe pallet 20 until the work-piece is in the selected nest 22 and thenreleases gripper 71, transferring the work-piece to the selected nest22. The cylinder 68 may also be partially extended during the release ofthe work-piece. Because of the low cost of such a picker, severalpickers may be located on the tooling plate 23 for different parts, ormay work simultaneously on different work-pieces on the pallet 20.

To illustrate that even more complex pick and place functions can befitted to the tooling plate 23, a two-cylinder pick and place isillustrated. Such a picker might be faster than the single cylinderpicker because it does not require rotation of the pallet 20 tofunction, or might be used where the work-piece cannot be passed downthrough the aperture 73, or when work-pieces are fed in on inclinedtracks which are common for electronic components. Since the mechanismis taller, it is secured to the robot outer arm 14 enclosure by abracket 77 which is bonded to the outer arm 14. Bracket 78 is bolted tobracket 77 and supports the upper end of the two air cylinders 79 and 80by means of pinion pins 81. Air cylinder 80 operates through extensionshaft 82 which moves a vacuum gripper 83 vertically. Extension shaft 82moves freely through a hole in the pivoting pin 89. Note that this toolas defined so far has all the capability of the single picker asdescribed above. To move the gripper 83 outboard from the pallet 20, asecond cylinder 79 acts through extension shaft 85 on pinion pin 88 andlinkage tube 87. The shaft 85 is fixed to pinion pin 88 which is free torotate within linkage tube 87. The lower end of the linkage tube 87 isheld by another pinion pin 86 which is bolted through the tooling plate23. When cylinder 79 is activated, pushing down on pinion 89, thecylinder 79 forces tube 87 to rotate clockwise about pinion 86 and theend pinion 88 to move down and outboard. This action forces cylinderextension 82 to rotate outboard guided by a slotted bracket 90.Therefore, the picker gripper 83 is moved outboard.

To remove work-pieces from the pallet 20 with the two cylinder pickertool, cylinder 80 is activated lowering gripper 83, the gripper 83 isactivated, cylinder 80 is retracted, cylinder 79 is extended forcinggripper 83 outboard of the pallet 20. The gripper 83 is released,releasing the work-piece onto a track or work-piece container andcylinder 79 is then retracted.

To load work-pieces from supply points onto the pallet 20, the robot 10moves into a favorable position, cylinder 79 is extended, swinginggripper 83 outboard. Cylinder 80 then extends to place the gripper 83 onthe work-piece and the gripper 83 is activated. Cylinder 80 retracts andthen cylinder 79 retracts swinging the gripper 83 and work-piece backover the pallet 20. Simultaneously, the robot 10 rotates pallet 20 topresent a selected nest 22 under gripper 83. Cylinder 80 then extendsplacing the work-piece into the nest 22. The gripper 83 releases andcylinder 80 retracts.

For processing and assembly of medical work-pieces such as siliconeintraocular lenses, it is mandatory to minimize particulate falling onthe work-pieces. The rotatable pallet 20 might then have a circular dustcover with only a single aperture for working on the lenses. It is thennecessary to hold the dust cover from rotating while the rotatablepallet 20 is successively turned to present successive work-pieces. Thevertical air cylinder 92 is mounted inboard on the tooling plate 23, asshown in FIG. 3, and is then activated forcing a pin down into amatching hole in the dust cover and preventing the dust cover fromturning during rotation of the pallet 20.

Other suitable pick and place tools for mounting to the tooling plate 23but not illustrated by the drawings include a horizontally rotatingactuator moving a vertical air cylinder with gripper into alignment witha nest and then rotating outboard. Another pick and place tool is asmall compact non-rotating air cylinder which is mounted on the toolingplate 23 and moving a vertically oriented air cylinder and gripper overa nest 22 and then radially outboard of the pallet 20.

Orientation and positioning of the tools on the tooling plate 23 is afunction of the work-pieces, tasks to be performed, and work-stationsaligned on the periphery of the robot work envelope.

Concentric circular arrays of work-pieces are contemplated within thescope of the present invention. In such cases, the work-piece toolswould be duplicated for each rank of parts while pallet tools such asthe bar code reader head would not. The pick and place devices mightthen have individually activated tools over each row of work-pieces.

The industry of assembling for high speed dedicated assembly machinesconsiders work-pieces as small if the assemblies can be held in aperson's hand. The Adept One robot can move a payload of a gripper,pallet, and work-pieces weighing up to twenty (20) pounds on its userflange with a reach of 31.5" from the center of the column to the centerof the user flange and would be suitable for such parts. However, theAdept Three robot is similar in respect to all major design features ofthe Adept One robot except that it can carry a payload of fifty-five(55) pounds and has a reach of 41.5" and would be suitable forwork-pieces weighing up to five pounds, such as car radios and computerdisk drives. to FIG. 5, there is illustrated a circular shaped toolingplate 95 which is utilized for the Adept One robot, as shown in FIG. 1.The Adept Three robot would have a much larger tooling plate than theAdept One robot while working on many more or much larger parts on alarger work-piece pallet.

While the circular design is optimal for circular arrays of work-pieces,linear arrays are contemplated for some industries such as integratedcircuit packaging where the rotatable pallet might carry linear leadframes of multiple parts resting on two sides of a rectangular pallet,or four sides of a square pallet. In such cases, sensors such asreflective photocells might be multiplexed with the fiber optic endsensors arranged in a rank on one entire side of the square toolingpallet and picker devices might be on a horizontal bar moving a rank ofvacuum grippers at a time rather than just one.

Referring to FIGS. 6, 7, and 8, there are illustrated some variationsfor such linear arrays of work-pieces in the same scale as tooling plate95, as shown in FIG. 5. FIG. 6 shows a square tooling pallet 96 suitablefor working on lead frames with six work-pieces per lead frame arrangedin a square pattern on a square pallet. FIG. 7 shows a rectangulartooling plate 98 suitable for working on two longer linear arrays. FIG.8 shows a hexagonal tooling plate 99 suitable for working on shorterlinear arrays of work-pieces such as when the work-piece pallet carrieslinear arrays of three parts each. Cartesian coordinate robots withlinear motion axes and overhead gantry robots can be useful whenoperating on work-pieces such as linear arrays on pallets placed on therotatable pallet.

It will be appreciated that the shapes are not limited to the abovedescriptions. It is emphasized that while the circular shaped toolingplate is the preferred embodiment, it is also within the spirit andscope of the present invention to have a polygon shaped tooling plate.

The tooling plate, tools, and method of the present invention will beuseful on other robots. FIG. 9 shows the preferred embodiment of thepresent invention clamping plate assembly previously shown in FIG. 2.

Referring to FIG. 10, there is shown a mounting means 102 suitable formounting a tooling plate to the underside of an overhead robotic arm bybolts. The mounting means 102 consists of a bolting plate 103 which isaffixed to a tube 104, with optional lightening apertures 106, and whichis fixed at edge 111 to the tooling plate 23. The bolting plate 103includes bolt holes 105 for mounting to the bottom of robot arm 14.

Referring to FIG. 11, a simple angular bracket 107 is shown which can befixed to the tooling plate at edge 109 and includes a bolt hole 117 tobe attached to the outer robot arm 14. The bracket 107 is normally usedin a circular array. The bracket 107 is normally utilized in a pair inwhich only one is shown in the figure. Four brackets 107 would beroughly comparable in use to the single bracket 102 with four struts 118shown in FIG. 10, but would be less expensive to fabricate. Suchbracketry is specific to each robot model.

Whereas it has been previously presented that robot 10 picks up therotatable pallet 20 to begin its work cycle on work-pieces containedthereon, it is also within the scope of the present invention that whileretaining the same pallet 20, the robot 10 could continue to utilize thesame pallet 20 while it loaded a set of work-pieces, completed itsoperations, and then unloaded those work-pieces to begin working on thenext set of work-pieces. Robot 10 would then change to a differentpallet 20 only when another type of work-piece assembly is to beprocessed.

Referring to FIG. 12, there is illustrated the outer link arm 14, thequill cover 16, quill guide 36, user flange 17, tooling plate 23, andclamping tube 46. For clarity, the tools are not shown mounted to thetooling plate 23. It is within the intended scope of the presentinvention that the robot end effector could have a horizontal gripperthat holds a single work-piece off the central axis of rotation so thatit was rotated under the tooling plate 23, as shown in this figure. Thepallet gripper and rotatable pallet have been replaced by a gripperholder 115 which is fixed to the user flange 17. The gripper holder 115is carrying a gripper 112 with gripper jaws 113 carrying a work-piece114. In addition to working with work-stations positioned at theperiphery of the robot work envelope, the robot 10 can rotate thegripper 112 to present the work-piece 114 to tools mounted on thetooling plate 23. The work-piece 114 can be a small pallet carrying awork-piece on it when it is gripped by gripper 112.

Having a general apparatus and method for easily mounting and using suchtools will suggest additional tooling capabilities for specific needs.Other tools will be of a less general nature, specific to a particularprocessing need. Mounting of such tooling on a tooling plate under therobot head is within the intended scope of the present invention.

FIG. 13 illustrates an alternative method of mounting the tooling plate122 to a different robot. This figure illustrates a case where therotatable pallet 20 would be held above the robot head and the toolingplate 122 would be below the rotatable pallet 20. The apparatus in FIG.13 is used for processing small work-pieces in ultra clean environmentswhere mechanisms should not be positioned above the work-pieces. Forclarity in the illustration, no tools are shown mounted on the toolingplate 122, however, any of those previously illustrated tools could beinverted and fixed to the tooling plate 122 from the lower surface. Byway of example, the end of the outer arm 116 is a Seiko TT4000SC robot.The end effector wrist 118 is mounted in the inverted position with theend effector mounting flange 120 positioned upwardly. Pallet vacuumgripper 21 is mounted on flange 120 and grips rotatable pallet 20 withnests 22. The tooling plate 122 has a central cylindrical clearance hole124 which is affixed to the robot wrist 118 on two sides by supportbolts 128 through the tooling plate 122 into bolting bosses 130 on theside of plates 132 (only one is shown) which are bonded by adhesivemeans 134 to the sides of wrist 118.

In the robot of FIG. 13, and in many others, movement in the vertical(Z) axis of the end effector is accomplished by the support columnraising and lowering the upper and outer arm assembly so that the endeffector can rotate but not elevate with respect to the tooling plate ofthe present invention.

With rotatable pallets with many nests, it is usually impractical tomake connections to individual nests through pallet gripper 21 ascommonly done with robot end effector change tooling.

Referring to FIGS. 14, 15, 16, and 17, there are illustrated a tool formounting on the tooling plate 23 that when pressed down against therotatable pallet 20 provides mechanical, electrical, and pneumaticconnections to successive selected individual nests 22. It is normallyused to process a series of nests 22, one at a time. FIG. 14 is a nestactuator tool 174 which may be used for all such connections. FIG. 15shows mechanical connections to nests at the periphery of rotatablepallet 20. FIG. 16 shows electrical connections. FIG. 17 shows pneumaticconnections. Only one pallet 20 would be used at a time under thetooling plate 23 and each nest 22 in pallet 20 could have one, some, orall of the mechanisms illustrated. All mechanisms in the figures arealigned to cylinder centerline 139.

Referring now to FIG. 14, there is illustrated a pneumatic cylinder 138with a shaft 140 on centerline 139 mounted on tooling plate 23 radiallybetween the quill centerline 137 on the left side of the figure androtatable pallet nests 22 on the right. Cylinder 138 is mounted by itsnose 156 into an electrical isolation bushing 158 which is mounted onthe tooling plate 23. Cylinder shaft 140 is normally retracted by airfrom air line 146 through fitting 142, and extended by air from air line144 through another fitting 142. Shaft 140 is hollow and opens at thebottom 166. At the top, shaft 140 has a metal (electrically conducting)fitting 148, terminating hollow shaft 140 and connecting through airline 150 to the pneumatic control system of robot. Screw 152 terminatesa wire 154 into the metal fitting 148 providing a continuous electricalcircuit down to hollow shaft tip 166. Additional connections are mountedto plate 160 attached to the lower end of shaft 140 which is keptrotationally aligned by a pin 162 moving vertically in hole 164 intooling plate 23. An example of an additional connection is electricalspring pin 168 which is mounted on plate 160 connected by wire 170 tothe robot electrical controls and passing through tooling plate 23 viahole 172, which can be one of the unused dowel pin holes 56, as shown inFIG. 2. Electrically isolated pins 168 would be used or plate 160 wouldbe made of a non-conducting material such as plastic or have insulatorbushings (not illustrated) for the pins 168. While any of the followingactuation actions would justify use of a pneumatic actuator 174 tocontact the rotatable pallet 20, the preferred embodiment provides allthree capabilities in a simple mechanism as will now be discussed.

FIG. 15 is located directly below FIG. 14 to show how movement ofcylinder shaft 140 can cause one of several desirable mechanical actionson a selected nest 22 in rotatable pallet 20. The mechanisms are shownvertically separated for illustration clarity, whereas there wouldnormally be only a small vertical clearance between shaft end 166 andcontact button 194. A simple cylindrical work-piece 136 is resting inselected nest 22 in rotatable pallet 20. The work-piece 136 is free tofall through nest 22 except that it is horizontally jammed by arm 180pushing elastomer bumper 181 against it. Arm 180 is rotated clockwiseabout pivot 182 and supported by a bracket 184 by the action ofcompression spring 192 held in alignment by pin 190 and stopped in thehorizontal plane by pin 188 under the outboard end of arm 180.Therefore, the normal position of arm 180 is to retain the work-piece136 in nest 22 for most processing on the rotatable pallet 20. However,during loading of pallet 20, and for unloading work-pieces 136, arm 180must be released by rotating it counterclockwise about pivot 182 indirection 180. This is accomplished by pallet actuator 174 pushing shafttip 166 down against mechanical contact 194 which is aligned withcenterline 139 of actuator assembly 174. Depressing button 194 releasesarm 180, and permitting work-piece 136 to be inserted into, or to bedropped out of the rotatable pallet 20. This is but one of severalpossible useful mechanism that could be placed on pallet 20 for which avertical mechanical actuator assembly 174 could be useful.

Referring to FIG. 16, there is shown a partial cross-sectional viewthrough pallet 20 that has electrical conductor 206 affixed to it ontowhich ring contact 200 on work-piece 136 rests on one side, and contactsconductor 206 on the other side which is connected behind the plane ofconductor 206 to conductor 204, establishing a complete electricalcircuit through the work-piece. The more general case for this type ofneed is for pallet 20 to be constructed of printed circuit board typelaminated fiberglass with the conductors being traces on surfaces orthrough the fiberglass and with button or spring contacts where thosetraces were touched. Actuator assembly 174 in FIG. 14 is aligned oncenterline 139. When shaft 140 is extended by incoming air in line 144,shaft tip 166 travels down and contacts conductor 206 and electricalspring pin 168 on plate 160 contacts conductor 204, completing anelectrical circuit through work-piece 136. As soon as processingoperations on work-piece 136 are completed, shaft 140 would be raised byair pressure in line 146 and the robot would rotate pallet 20 to thenext selected work-piece 136. Electrical contact 168 is of the type usedin high density printed circuit board testers known to the art as "bedof nails" testers and are readily available in center-to-center spacingsas small as 0.050"; therefore, it will be seen that rather than only asingle electrical contact, wire 170 could be a flat ribbon cable withperhaps twenty-four (24) individual conductors terminating in a similarnumber of spring-loaded contacts 168 and routed around the outboard edgeof tooling plate 23. Such contacts are needed for tasks such as testingand laser trimming of six-lead pressure sensors for temperaturecompensation. By using actuator assembly 174, only six connections arenecessary rather than six for each work-piece carried on rotatablepallet 20.

Referring now to FIG. 17, there is depicted a means for actuatorassembly 174 to provide a pneumatic connection to a work-piece 136resting in nest 22 of rotatable pallet 20. Aligned on centerline 139 isa vertical passage 210 through elastomer pneumatic seal 214 tohorizontal passage 212 connecting to work-piece 136. When hollow shaft140 is moved down by the action of air pressure in line 144, hollowshaft tip 166 moves down to rest firmly on seal 214. When positive ornegative air pressure is introduced through line 150 and fitting 148, itis then connected to nest 22 holding work-piece 136. One application notillustrated would be for air passage 212 to provide air for an airbearing established between nests 22 and the vertical surfaces ofwork-piece 136 such as when making extremely precise fills by weight ofcostly pharmaceutical products in small containers in which a highlyaccurate empty weight of the container must be determined so that thenet weight of the contents is determined to a higher accuracy thanavailable under current production automation art.

While specific utility examples for mechanical, electrical, andpneumatic connections from tooling plate 23 through pallet 20 toindividual nests 22 have been disclosed, the present invention is theapparatus and method of making such connections rather than the actionsthat are then enabled. Clearly a single, simple device primarilyutilizing only an air cylinder provides connections useful in someapplications. Connections for other gases and liquids such as oil, air,solvents, cooling or heating air, are accomplished in a similar manner.Connection of other mechanical devices such as fiber optic strands isdiscussed later in FIGS. 18 and 19. The same mechanisms would beutilized whether the pallet was below the tooling plate as depicted inFIG. 1, or above the tooling plate as depicted in FIG. 13.

With some connections, such as electrical connections, a singleactuation of actuator 174 will establish connections to multiple nestsby conductor arrays leading from the contact point to a plurality ofnests 22. Tooling plate 23 permits mounting of a plurality of suchactuators 174 for making a plurality of sets of connectionssimultaneously.

When the robot can move pallet 20 vertically relative to tooling plate23 as well as to rotate it, a faster processing method is possible. Therobot then normally carries rotatable pallet 20 some operating distancebelow tool plate 23. When connections to selected individual nests 22are desired, shaft 140 with the mechanical, electrical, and pneumaticdevices is lowered. The robot then raises rotatable pallet 20 to contactthe extended head of actuator assembly 174. Then air pressure in line150 is maintained to act as a pneumatic spring on shaft 140 while therobot moves rotatable pallet 20 down only about 0.050" inches to clearthe connections, rotates rotatable pallet 20 to the next selected nest22 and then raises rotatable pallet 20 to 0.050" to make theconnections. The robot is then able to process work-pieces much fasterthan the much longer cycle time required to move the pneumatic cylindershaft 140 up and down and produces a much softer impact on making theconnections. The connections are then accomplished without the violentend-of-stroke decelerations characteristic of high speed pneumaticcylinder movements.

Referring to FIGS. 18 and 19, there is shown an apparatus for makingconnections for higher pressure fluids and gasses or for fiber opticswhere the connections must be closely aligned. FIG. 18 shows a connector220 with a female connection supported in a plate 224 which may beeither a tooling plate 23 or moving actuation plate 160, as shown inFIG. 14. FIG. 19 shows a connector 222 with a male connection and ismounted on rotatable pallet 20.

Referring to FIG. 18, there is illustrated a supply connection 226 foreither a gas, liquid, fiber optic strand, or fiberoptic bundle.Connection 226 is one end of body 228 which is inserted through cavity225 in plate 224 and supported by snap rings 230 in retaining grooves232. Clearance gap 234 is between body 228 and plate 224 and permitslateral alignment of connector 220 with connector 222. A cutaway sectionview 254 shows the female cone surface 238. A cutaway section view 256shows the ring retaining groove 232.

Referring now to FIG. 19, there is illustrated the male connector 222.The receiving gas or liquid port or fiber optic strand 242 is shown in acutaway section view 258. Body 246 has outer threads 244 which mateswith the rotatable pallet 20. Body 246 has a preferably horizontal tubeor strand 248 leading to work-piece nests 22. Tube or strand 250 exitsin line with the connector centerline 260 when a horizontal orientationis not possible.

Referring to FIGS. 18 and 19, connectors 220 and 222 are separated by avertical distance 252 which is approximately as little as 0.050" beforethe connection is made. When the connectors 220 and 222 are small,connector 220 may be on plate 160 of actuator assembly 174 in FIG. 14.Assembly 174 would not then need a hollow shaft, electrical isolation,or electrical contactor 168. When connectors 220 and 222 are larger,connector 220 would be in tooling plate 23 and body 228 would extendfurther below tooling plate 23. Alternatively, connector 220 can be amale connection and connector 222 can be a female connection.

The method of operation of connectors 220 and 222 is the same in makingthe connections as previously explained for actuator assembly 174 actingon pallet 20. When connector 220 is in tooling plate 23, the robotrotates pallet 20 to the selected nest 22 and then raises pallet 20until connector 222 mates to connector 220.

Referring to FIG. 20, there is illustrated a partial closeupcross-sectional view of a video camera 66 with lens 262 mounted on abracket 67 to tooling plate 23 using bolt 53 and dowel pin 55 relativeto quill centerline 137. Camera 66 is vertically adjustable on bracket67 by moving a bolt 270 in a vertical slot (not shown) in bracket 67.Below camera 66 is the rotatable pallet 20 with nest 22 holdingwork-piece 264 which has a feature 265 at a different height. Videocamera 66 has an internal focusing plane on the (CCD sensor. The focaldistance 266 from camera 66 to work-piece 264 is normally fixed. Therobot presents features of work-piece 264 such as feature 265, byvertically moving and rotatable pallet 20 to present the desired fieldof view and focal distance to the camera 66 for the inspection. Wherelens 262 is a high magnification lens with a short depth of field, amachine vision computer under prior art can accurately determine theheight of a feature 265 on work-piece 264 by measuring when an edge isin sharpest focus.

An important use of vertical close up camera 66 is for highly accurateregistration of work-pieces 264 in nests 22. Automatic assembly machinesmust have highly accurate registrations of components to which othercomponents are to be added. In dedicated automatic assembly equipment,such accuracies are obtained by tightly tolerancing the work-pieces andall tools and tooling mounts that affect the registration of theassembly tools to the work-piece. Close tolerancing is costly and mayprevent some operations from being automated. Important applications ofthe rotatable pallet and tooling plate inventions will be in automatingoperations currently performed by humans under microscopes in cleanrooms for products such as semiconductor devices. For some products,such as surgically implanted intraocular lenses supported in nests 22 bytiny, flimsy haptics, it is mandatory that the center of the optic befound by camera 66 when measuring optical properties of the lenses.

Camera 66 on the tooling plate 23 of the robot is used to locatefeatures on the work-piece itself as it rests in nest 22 of pallet 20and to record the X, Y, and Z offsets from a nominal position for eachnest 22 on pallet 20. When the robot presents a work-piece to anoperating station not on the tooling plate, for each work-piece it isthen able to offset the location of the nest 22 to compensate for mosttooling inaccuracies. Mounting the camera 66 on the head of the robotenables making highly accurate and repeatable location measurements ofwork-pieces as they rotate about the quill.

Referring to FIG. 21, it is the relative motion of the rotatable pallet20 to the tooling plate 23 which is useful for processing work byenabling presentation of part nests 22 to various tools mounted totooling plate 23. The robot may therefore perform useful work before itarrives at a work station in its operating envelope. FIG. 21 shows apallet conveyor 273 of the prior art moving rotatable pallets 20 onprior art rectangular pallets 272 in direction 274. On conveyor 273,rotatable pallet 20 on prior art rectangular pallet 272 is caused tostop under a station 268 which includes an indexing head 276 capable ofmoving a quill 280 with a pallet gripper end effector 281 vertically androtationally about its centerline. Below head 276 is a lower bearingsupport 278 which is mounted to tooling plate 23 with a plurality oftools (not shown) as earlier described. Head 276 performs the functions,of the robot in vertically moving and rotating rotatable pallet 20, butis not free to move horizontally in the X and Y directions. Head 276 issupported by vertical struts 282 and horizontal struts 284 on both sidesof the conveyor 273. Work tables 286 are supported from vertical struts282 and can also be attached to the sides of pallet conveyor 273. Onwork tables 286, a plurality of work stations 288 are arrayed accordingto the prior art of dedicated automation horizontal indexing dials, suchas part feeders with pick and placement from the feed track to anadvantageous position on a work-piece being worked on. Work-stations 288are primarily those which feed and place components to work-pieces onrotatable pallet 20. Video camera 290 is supported from head 276 by abracket 292 and views work-pieces in nests 22 of the rotatable pallet20. When a rotatable pallet 20 is stopped under head 276, vacuum palletgripper 21 is moved down to grip the rotatable pallet 20 and then raiseit to the operating position under the tooling plate 23 which is alsothe operating height for work-stations 288. The vertical distance thatthe rotatable pallet 20 is raised will typically be less than two (2)inches, but can be as much as six (6) inches. The rotatable pallet 20 isthen rotated and elevated as tools on tooling plate 23 and work-stations288 perform useful processing on work-pieces then carried on rotatablepallet 20 in the same manner as if the parts were carried on the head ofa robot, but at a reduced cost for the station mechanisms. Uponcompletion of the selected tasks, head 276 moves pallet gripper 21 downand releases the rotatable pallet 20 back onto the rectangular pallet272 and then moves upward to clear the rotatable pallet 20 duringindexing of pallet conveyor 273.

Work-station 268 is a hybrid of important automation technologies. Ituses the flexibility of pallet conveying systems to move work along aprocessing line while for small parts overcoming their inherent speedlimitation in taking two to four seconds to move a pallet into anoperating station by carrying a plurality of work-pieces. After therotatable pallet is picked up and vertically moved up into the operatingposition it uses the very common methods and tools of rotary indexingdial machines in performing a plurality of operations on work-pieceseach time the dial (rotatable pallet) is indexed. The head 276 has thecapability to rapidly move quill 280 to intermediate vertical positions,and the rotatable pallet 20 can be moved vertically to simplify theoperations of tools on tooling plate 23 and work-stations 288 inperforming processing.

As presented in this application, simple tools mounted on a centraltooling plate around a head capable of lifting and rotating a rotatablepallet can simplify small part assembly and processing equipment.Rotatable pallet 20 can include linear arrays of work-pieces of two ormore work-pieces carried on rotatable pallets 20 with more than threestraight sides. With the rigid mounting of head 276, weight of thetooling plate 23 and tool array may be much larger than when a robotwould have to move them.

In low volume, highly variable production cells, a robot is used with avery large number of work-stations arrayed around the work envelope. Formedium volume production cells, a robot operates on the side of aconveyor line with a more limited scope of tasks. FIG. 21 discloses thatfor higher volume production cells using a rotatable pallet moving alonga conveyor line, the robot may be replaced by more dedicated, lessflexible equipment. Therefore, rotatable pallets are useful and costeffective at all levels of production. The tooling plate 23 is useful inreducing cost and size of the equipment and in increasing productionspeed in all forms of equipment utilizing rotatable pallets.

An embodiment of the present invention is defined as an apparatus, forassembly and processing work-pieces retained on a rotatable pallethaving a plurality of work-piece nests for retaining the work-pieces,the apparatus comprising: (a) a robot having a head and capable ofcontrolled X, Y, and Z movements, the robot further having a wrist jointcapable of rotation in a horizontal plane; (b) a tooling plate forretaining a plurality of processing tools to perform a plurality ofdifferent operations on said work-pieces which are positioned by saidrobot relative to the plurality of processing tools; (c) means formounting said tooling plate to said head of said robot such that saidtooling plate is fixed; (d) means for mounting said plurality ofprocessing tools to said tooling plate; and (e) an end effector attachedto said wrist joint of said robot for temporarily gripping saidrotatable pallet such that said rotatable pallet can rotate so that saidwork-pieces on said rotatable pallet are moved relative to saidplurality of processing tools on said tooling plate.

Another embodiment of the present invention is defined as an apparatusfor assembly and processing at least one work-piece, comprising: (a) arobot having a head and capable of controlled X, Y, and Z movements, therobot further having a wrist joint attached to an end effector capableof rotation in a horizontal plane; (b) a tooling plate for retaining atleast one, processing tool to perform an operation on said at least onework-piece which is positioned by said robot relative to the at leastone processing tool; (c) means for mounting said tooling plate to saidhead of said robot such that said tooling plate is fixed; (d) means formounting said at least one processing tool to said tooling plate; and(e) a gripper holder attached to said end effector of said wrist jointof said robot for temporarily gripping said at least one work-piece suchthat the gripper holder can rotate and move vertically so that said atleast one work-piece is moved relative to said at least one processingtool on said tooling plate.

Defined broadly, the present invention is an apparatus for assembly andprocessing work-pieces retained on a rotatable pallet for retaining thework-pieces and to be used in conjunction with a robot having a headcapable of controlled X, Y, and Z movements, the robot further having awrist joint attached to an end effector capable of rotation in ahorizontal plane, the apparatus comprising: (a) a tooling plate forretaining a plurality of processing tools to perform a plurality ofdifferent operations on said work-pieces which are positioned by saidrobot relative to the plurality of processing tools; (b) means formounting said tooling plate to said head of said robot such that saidtooling plate is fixed; and (c) means for mounting said plurality ofprocessing tools to said tooling plate.

Defined most broadly, the present invention is an apparatus for assemblyand processing at least one work-piece retained on a gripper holder andto be used in conjunction with a robot having a head capable ofcontrolled X, Y, and Z movements, the head attached to the gripperholder, the apparatus comprising: (a) a tooling plate mounted to saidhead of said robot for retaining at least one processing tool to performan operation on said at least work-piece which is positioned by saidhead of said robot relative to the at least one processing tool; and (b)means for mounting said at least one processing tool to said toolingplate.

The present invention is also broadly defined as an apparatus forassembly and processing at least one work-piece retained on a rotatablepallet, comprising: (a) a head having a wrist joint attached to an endeffector, the head being capable of moving the end effector verticallyand rotating the end effector in a horizontal plane; (b) a tooling plateremovably mounted to said head; (c) at least one processing toolremovably mounted to said tooling plate for performing an operation onsaid at least one work-piece which is positioned by said head relativeto the at least one processing tool; and (d) a gripper holder attachedto said end effector of said wrist joint of said head for temporarilygripping said rotatable pallet containing said at least one work-piecesuch that said at least one work-piece is positioned relative to said atleast one processing tool on said tooling plate.

The present invention is also broadly defined as an apparatus forassembly and processing at least one work-piece, comprising: (a) a headhaving a wrist joint attached to an end effector, the head being capableof moving the end effector vertically and rotating the end effector ahorizontal plane; (b) a tooling plate mounted to said head; (c) at leastone processing tool mounted on said tooling plate for performing anoperation on said at least one work-piece which is positioned by saidhead relative to the at least one processing tool; and (d) a gripperholder attached to said end effector of said wrist joint of said headfor temporarily gripping said at least one work-piece such that thegripper holder can rotate and move vertically so that said at least onework-piece is relative to said at least one processing tool on saidtooling plate.

The present invention can also be defined as a method for processingwork-pieces utilizing a robot capable of moving its head in the X, Y andZ directions with a wrist joint rotatable in a horizontal plane, themethod comprising the steps of: (a) utilizing a rotatable pallet whichhas a plurality of nests for retaining a plurality of work-pieces; (b)mounting a pallet-gripping end effector on said head of said robot; (c)grasping said rotatable pallet with said end effector on said head ofsaid robot; (d) utilizing a tooling plate which has a plurality ofprocessing tools and located adjacent to said rotatable pallet; (e)presenting a work-piece on said rotatable pallet to said plurality ofprocessing tools; (f) performing a task on said work-piece; (g) indexingsaid rotatable pallet to present another work-piece to said plurality ofprocessing tools by rotating said wrist joint of said robot; and (h)repeating steps (e) through (g) sequentially for all said plurality ofwork-pieces.

An additional limitation to the present invention includes the abovemethod comprising the steps of: (a) utilizing a vertical part gripper onsaid tooling plate not moving with said end effector of said robot; (b)moving said rotatable pallet by said robot by positioning an enlargedopening on said rotatable pallet underneath said vertical part gripper;(c) actuating said vertical part gripper to extend downwardly throughsaid enlarged opening on said rotatable pallet; (d) gripping a selectedwork-piece beneath said rotatable pallet from a supply point; (e)retracting said vertical part gripper by drawing said selectedwork-piece up through said enlarged opening; (f) rotating said rotatablepallet until a selected nest is underneath said vertical part gripper;(g) moving said rotatable pallet upwardly and adjacent to said selectedwork-piece; (h) releasing said gripping of said selected work-piece onsaid selected nest of said rotatable pallet; (i) moving said rotatablepallet by said robot relative to said work-piece to a downwardlyposition away from said work-piece; and (j) repeating steps (a) through(i) sequentially until all of said plurality of nests have been filledwith said work-pieces.

Another limitation to the present invention includes the above methodfurther comprising the steps of: (a) utilizing a vertical part gripperon said tooling plate not moving with said end effector of said robot;(b) rotating said rotatable pallet until a selected nest is underneathsaid vertical part gripper; (c) actuating said vertical part grippercausing it to extend downwardly on said rotatable pallet; (d) gripping aselected work-piece on said selected nest on said rotatable pallet; (e)retracting said vertical part gripper; (f) moving said rotatable palletby said robot by positioning an enlarged opening on said rotatablepallet underneath said vertical part gripper; (g) actuating saidvertical part gripper causing it to extend downwardly through saidenlarged opening; (h) releasing said gripping of said selectedwork-piece to a work envelope of said robot; (i) repeating step (e); and(j) repeating steps (b) through (i) sequentially until all of saidwork-pieces have been removed from said plurality of nests of saidrotatable pallet.

Another limitation to the present invention includes the above method inaccordance with claim 59 further comprising the steps of: (a) utilizingfirst and second cylinders acting through gimbals to cause the firstcylinder to force the second cylinder to move through an arc; (b) movingsaid head of said robot so that a gripper on said second cylindercontacts a work-piece resting within a work envelope of said robot; (c)gripping said work-piece with said gripper of said second cylinder; (d)retracting said second cylinder; (e) retracting said first cylinderwhich causes said second cylinder to return in its arc to be verticallyaligned with a selected nest on said rotatable pallet; (f) actuatingsaid second cylinder to extend downwardly to position said work-piece tosaid selected nest; (g) releasing said gripping of said work-piece ontosaid selected nest; (h) moving said rotatable pallet downwardly awayfrom said gripper while said second cylinder retracts; and (i) repeatingsteps (b) through (h) sequentially until all of said plurality of nestshave been filled with a plurality of work-pieces.

Another limitation to the present invention includes the above methodfurther comprising the steps of: (a) utilizing first and secondcylinders acting through gimbals to cause the first cylinder to forcethe second cylinder to move through an arc; (b) moving said head of saidrobot so that said gripper on said second cylinder contacts a work-pieceresting within a selected nest of said rotatable pallet; (c) grippingsaid work-piece with said gripper of said second cylinder; (d)retracting said second cylinder; (e) retracting said first cylinderwhich causes said second cylinder to return in its arc to be verticallyaligned with said selected nest on said rotatable pallet; (f) actuatingsaid second cylinder to extend downwardly to position said work-piece toa work envelope of said robot; (g) releasing said gripping of saidwork-piece; (h) retracting said second cylinder; (i) rotating saidrotatable pallet to another selected nest; and (j) repeating steps (a)through (h) sequentially until all of said plurality of work-pieces havebeen removed from said rotatable pallet.

The present invention can also be defined as a method for processingwork-pieces utilizing a robot capable of moving its head in the X, Y andZ directions with a wrist joint rotatable in a horizontal plane, themethod comprising the steps of: (a) mounting an end effector on saidwrist joint of said head of said robot for holding a selectedwork-piece; (b) gripping said selected work-piece from a supply pointwith said end effector of said robot; (c) utilizing a tooling platewhich has a plurality of processing tools on said head of said robot;(d) presenting said selected work-piece to said plurality of processingtools; (e) performing a task on said selected work-piece; (f) releasingsaid gripping of said selected work-piece to a desired position within awork envelop of said robot; and (g) repeating steps (b) through (f)sequentially for all work-pieces at said supply point.

The present invention can further be defined as a work-station forassembly and processing work-pieces retained on a plurality of rotatablepallets each having a plurality of work-piece nests for retaining thework-pieces, the work station having a pallet conveyor with a pluralityof rectangular pallets, where the plurality of rotatable pallets arerespectively placed on the plurality of rectangular pallets and thepallet conveyor respectively moves the plurality of rotatable pallets onthe plurality of rectangular pallets in a horizontal direction to agripping position, the work-station comprising:

(a) an indexing head mounted above said gripping position and having ashaft with a wrist joint attached to a pallet gripper, the shaft beingcapable of vertically moving the pallet gripper downwardly to saidgripping position for temporarily gripping said plurality of rotatablepallets respectively, and the shaft being further capable of rotatingthe pallet gripper in a horizontal plane;

(b) a tooling plate mounted to said head of said work-station andlocated adjacent to and above said pallet gripper; and (c) a pluralityof processing tools mounted on said tooling plate for performing aplurality of different operations on said work-pieces contained on saidplurality of rotatable pallets;

(d) whereby said conveyor pallet respectively moves said plurality ofrotatable pallets to said gripping position, and said shaft of said headmoves said pallet gripper downwardly to said gripping position fortemporarily gripping said plurality of rotatable pallets from saidplurality of rectangular pallets respectively such that said pluralityof rotatable pallets can be elevated and rotated so that saidwork-pieces contained on said plurality of rotatable pallets are workedon by said plurality of processing tools on said tooling plate.

Another definition of the present invention is a work-station forassembly and processing work-pieces retained on a plurality of rotatablepallets each having a plurality of work-piece nests for retaining thework-pieces, the work station having a pallet conveyor with a pluralityof rectangular pallets, where the plurality of rotatable pallets arerespectively placed on the plurality of rectangular pallets and thepallet conveyor respectively moves the plurality of rotatable pallets onthe plurality of rectangular pallets in a horizontal direction to agripper position, the work-station comprising:

(a) a head mounted above said gripping position and having a wrist jointattached to a pallet gripper, the head being capable of verticallymoving the pallet gripper downwardly to said gripping position fortemporarily gripping said plurality of rotatable pallets respectively,and the head being further capable of rotating the pallet gripper in ahorizontal plane; (b) a tooling plate mounted to said head of saidwork-station and located adjacent to and above said pallet gripper; and(c) at least one processing tool mounted on said tooling plate forperforming an operation on said work-pieces contained on said pluralityof rotatable pallets; (d) whereby said conveyor pallet respectivelymoves said plurality of rotatable pallets to said gripping position, andsaid head moves said pallet gripper downwardly to said gripping positionfor temporarily gripping said plurality of rotatable pallets from saidplurality of rectangular pallets respectively such that said pluralityof rotatable pallets can be elevated and rotated so that saidwork-pieces contained on said plurality of rotatable pallets are workedon by said plurality of processing tools on said tooling plate.

A further definition of the present invention is a work-station forassembly and processing work-pieces, the work-station having a palletconveyor with a plurality of rectangular pallets and a plurality ofrotatable pallets each retaining at least one work-piece, where theplurality of rotatable pallets are respectively placed on the pluralityof rectangular pallets and the pallet conveyor respectively moves theplurality of rotatable pallets to a gripping position, the work-stationcomprising: (a) a head being capable of vertically moving a palletgripper downwardly to said gripping position for temporarily grippingsaid plurality of rotatable pallets which contained said at least onework-piece respectively, and the head being further capable of rotatingthe pallet gripper in a horizontal plane; (b) a tooling plate mounted tosaid head of said work-station; and (c) at least one processing toolmounted on said tooling plate for performing an operation on said atleast one work-piece contained on said plurality of rotatable palletsrespectively;

(d) whereby said conveyor pallet respectively moves said plurality ofrotatable pallets to said gripping position, and said head moves saidpallet gripper downwardly to said gripping position for temporarilygripping said plurality, of rotatable pallets from said plurality ofrectangular pallets respectively such that said plurality of rotatablepallets can be rotated so that said at least one work-piece contained onsaid plurality of rotatable pallets is worked on by said at least oneprocessing tool on said tooling plate.

Defined in more detail, the present invention is a method for processingwork-pieces utilizing a work station which includes a pallet conveyorwith a plurality of rectangular pallets and a plurality of rotatablepallets respectively placed on the plurality of rectangular pallets, theplurality of rotatable pallets each has a plurality of work-piece nestsfor retaining the work-pieces, the method comprising the steps of: (a)utilizing a head mounted above a gripping position and having a shaftwith a wrist joint attached to a pallet gripper, the shaft being capableof vertically moving the pallet gripper downwardly to the grippingposition for temporarily gripping said plurality of rotatable pallets,and the shaft further being capable of rotating the pallet gripper in ahorizontal plane; (b) mounting a tooling plate to said head and locatedadjacent to and above said pallet gripper; (c) mounting a plurality ofprocessing tools on said tooling plate for performing a plurality ofdifferent operations on said work-pieces contained on said plurality ofrotatable pallets;

(d) moving said pallet conveyor so that said plurality of rotatablepallets are respectively positioned to said gripping position under saidhead;

(e) gripping a selected rotatable pallet which is under said head withsaid pallet gripper; (f) presenting a work-piece on said selectedrotatable pallet to said plurality of processing tools; (g) performing atask on said work-piece;

(h) indexing said selected rotatable pallet to present anotherwork-piece to said plurality of processing tools by rotating said palletgripper on said shaft of head; and (i) repeating steps (f) through (h)sequentially for all of said plurality of work-pieces contained on saidselected rotatable pallet.

Finally, the present invention can also be defined as a method forprocessing at least one work-piece utilizing a work station whichincludes a pallet conveyor with a plurality of pallets and a pluralityof rotatable pallets respectively placed on the plurality of pallets,the method comprising the steps of: (a) utilizing a head having a wristjoint and a vertical shaft attached to a pallet gripper, the head beingcapable of vertically moving the pallet gripper downwardly to a grippingposition for temporarily gripping said plurality of rotatable palletsrespectively, and the head being capable of elevating and rotating thepallet gripper in a horizontal plane; (b) mounting a tooling plate tosaid head; (c) mounting at least one processing tool on said toolingplate; (d) moving said pallet conveyor so that said plurality ofrotatable pallets are respectively positioned to said gripping positionunder said head;

(e) gripping a selected rotatable pallet which is under said head withsaid pallet gripper; (f) presenting said at least one work-piece on saidselected rotatable pallet to said at least one processing tool; (g)performing a task on said at least one work-piece; and (h) repeatingsteps (d) through (g) sequentially for all of said plurality ofrotatable pallet.

Of course the present invention is not intended to be restricted to anyparticular form or arrangement, or any specific embodiment disclosedherein, or any specific use, since the same may be modified in variousparticulars or relations without departing from the spirit or scope ofthe claimed invention hereinabove shown and described of which theapparatus shown is intended only for illustration and for disclosure ofan operative embodiment and not to show all of the various forms ormodifications in which the present invention might be embodied oroperated.

The present invention has been described in considerable detail in orderto comply with the patent laws by providing full public disclosure of atleast one of its forms. However, such detailed description is notintended in any way to limit the broad features or principles of thepresent invention, or the scope of patent monopoly to be granted.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for performing processing operationson at least one work-piece retained in a gripper holder and to be usedin conjunction with a robot having a head capable of controlled X, Y,and Z movements, the gripper holder attached to the head, the apparatuscomprising:a. a tooling plate fixedly mounted to said head of said robotfor retaining at least one processing tool to perform an operation onsaid at least one work-piece, where said at least one work-piece ispositioned by said gripper holder of said head of said robot relative tothe at least one processing tool; and b. means for mounting said atleast one processing tool to said tooling plate.
 2. An apparatus forperforming processing operations on at least one work-piece,comprising:a. a head capable of moving in X, Y, and Z directions andhaving a wrist joint attached to an end effector, where the head movesthe wrist joint which moves the end effector vertically and rotating theend effector in a horizontal plane; b. a tooling plate fixedly mountedto said head; c. at least one processing tool mounted on said toolingplate for performing an operation on said at least one work-piece whichis positioned by said end effector moving relative to the at least oneprocessing tool; and d. a gripper holder attached to said end effectorof said wrist joint of said head for temporarily gripping said at leastone work-piece such that the gripper holder can rotate and movevertically so that said at least one work-piece is positioned relativeto said at least one processing tool on said tooling plate.
 3. Anapparatus for performing processing operations on at least onework-piece retained by a gripper holder and to be used in conjunctionwith a robot having a head capable of controlled X, Y, and Z movements,the gripper holder attached to the head, the apparatus comprising:a. atooling plate fixedly mounted to said head of said robot; b. at leastone processing tool retained on said tooling plate for performing anoperation on said at least one work-piece, where said at least onework-piece is positioned by said gripper holder relative to the at leastone processing tool; and c. means for mounting said at least oneprocessing tool to said tooling plate.